Panthers fans pack Amerant Bank Arena, but will have to wait at least a game to celebrate
They came to celebrate. They shuffled home in a seriously foul mood.
The Florida Panthers’ Game 4 watch party was supposed to be a coronation. Instead, it was a group therapy session.
Packed Amerant Bank Arena vacillated between groans of frustration and complete silence for most of Saturday night’s 8-1 Panthers blowout loss to the Edmonton Oilers.
And when coach Paul Maurice pulled Sergei Bobrovsky after the star goalie gave up his fifth goal of the night early in the second period, disappointment gave way to acceptance — with a bit of perspective — for the 18,000 or so in attendance.
Yes, the Panthers just had their worst game of the postseason, an historically bad loss that hasn’t happened to a team looking to clinch in a century. But the silver lining is this: They have three more chances to get the one win they need for the franchise’s first championship since the team’s inception in 1993.
And two of those games — including Tuesday’s Game 5 — would be in the swamp-adjacent barn that was rocking just a few hours earlier.
“I’m a little disappointed, but I’m not crestfallen,” said Panthers fan Alan Geffin, a 60-year-old attorney from Weston. “Just disappointed.”
Griffin is familiar with disappointment. He has been a season-ticket holder since Day 1 and has watched too many Panthers losses in person to count during over the past three decades.
He was there in 2014 when the Panthers were one of the worst teams in all of pro sports and the community had basically written them off.
Few would have believed a decade ago, when the big building off the Sawgrass was one-third full — at best — for most games, that the team could sell every ticket in the house for a game played more than 2,500 miles away.
“I used to call and say ‘What time does the game start?’” Geffin said. “And they would say, ‘Well, what time can you get here?’
He continued: “The memories that I recall that are most painful and vivid are the heartbreaking losses. The losses with 30 seconds to go. Losses where you’re on the brink of perhaps getting into playoffs and not making it. Those are the most vivid ones that I have. Just soul-crushing losses.”
There was no late drama in Edmonton on Saturday. The Oilers made it a quick death. While the Stanley Cup was wheeled into Rogers Place for a possible trophy celebration, no one got to touch it on this night.
And while the result certainly stung for those who lined up outside of Amerant Bank for hours just to watch Saturday’s game on the arena’s big screen, the news wasn’t all bad.
Now, with a win Tuesday, the Panthers would celebrate in front of those fans on their home ice.
Asked if there was a piece of him that selfishly wanted the series to get to a fifth game to watch the Panthers clinch in person, Geffin replied:
“I think the candid answer is yes. Part of me wants it. But if I had to choose between winning it tonight and taking a chance on what might happen in five, let’s win it tonight.”
Didn’t happen. The Oilers snapped the Panthers’ six-game winning streak with as dominant as a performance as you will see in a Stanley Cup Final game.
The Oilers sent a message to the Panthers and their fans: We’re not going down without a fight.
Expect another packed house when the series shifts south Tuesday. Game 5 is of course sold out, and the cheapest ticket on the secondary market as of late Saturday was $873.